[Editor’s note: Due to some errors on the ICv2 figures, erroneous information on variant covers for both WOLVERINE: ORIGINS and NEWUNIVERSAL #2 was included in the original post. Please make note of the corrected copy below.]

CIVIL WAR continued to loom over Marvel’s output in January, in more ways than one. Not only did the publisher continue to produce CIVIL WAR tie-ins, but thanks to the delays on the core title, they’re still not in a position to launch any of those shiny new titles. As a result, there’s not much in the way of new product this month.

The big projects are CIVIL WAR: THE RETURN, the relaunch of THUNDERBOLTS, and the new creative team of Jeph Loeb and Simone Bianchi on WOLVERINE. After that, it’s a big drop down to the new miniseries – SILENT WAR, HYPERION VS NIGHTHAWK and IRON MAN: HYPERVELOCITY.

Oh yes – and there’s something very odd at number 276. But we’ll come back to that.

As usual, Marvel took first place for the month in terms of market share. But the margin over DC was particularly wide – 45% to 34% in unit share, and 40% to 31% in dollar share.

Thanks as always to Milton Griepp and ICV2 for permission to use their figures for these calculations.

Before we start, it’s perhaps worth repeating the health warning for these figures, since I haven’t spelt it out in a while. These are estimates based on Diamond’s published chart for North American direct market sales. The numbers are probably fairly accurate as an estimate of the chart sales, since ICV2 and CBGxtra both estimate the sales independently, and tend to be very, very close together. But the chart doesn’t include any sales outside the direct market, and it doesn’t include sales to the UK. That’s a big chunk of readers – ICV2 estimate that most books do somewhere between 3% and 20% extra in Europe. But there’s no way of getting at the sales data for them, so we just have to live with the figures we have.

On the other hand, you should also bear in mind that these numbers only reflect sales to the retailer. There’s no way of knowing how many copies were actually sold to paying customers. But obviously, if a book is getting heavy re-orders then it’s probably been selling out. And if it’s crashing down the charts, that’s a pretty good indication that previous issues have been piling up unsold.

The monolithic CIVIL WAR continues to tower over the rest of the industry, outselling its nearest rival by more than two to one. Whatever else you say about the book, it’s a huge success. The re-orders continue to rack up, albeit more modestly – 3,204 copies of issue #3, 3,523 of issue #4, and 3,190 of issue #5.

2. CIVIL WAR: THE RETURN
01/07 The Return – 125,713

In an otherwise quiet month, this one-shot becomes Marvel’s most commercially notable project. It features the return of the original Captain Marvel, and it trails an ongoing series.

The problem is, the book has been almost universally panned, by both critics and message boards. Personally, I think some of the criticism thrown at the book has been excessively harsh – after all, I slogged through the inane Chuck Austen stories about disintegrator communion wafers, which were in a whole different league of awful. THE RETURN, in comparison, is just a bit limp.

But there’s no denying that the reaction to the book has been overwhelmingly negative, and that it spectacularly failed to deliver on the hype. This is not good news for the proposed CAPTAIN MARVEL series. The point of THE RETURN was presumably to build a buzz for that book. After this issue, the only buzzing is from the flies. Ironically, this may be a rare example of a comic where Marvel would have been better off in the long run if fewer people had bought it.

Jeph Loeb and Simone Bianchi arrive, amid much fanfare. There’s a variant cover on this book, and it’s got a nice round number to boot. It ends up selling about as well as the CIVIL WAR crossover issues. The 46.7% climb is a bit misleading; issue #49 was a fill-in Christmas story. But this is a very healthy start.

The much-delayed CIVIL WAR tie-in arc is definitely dropping back a bit, but it’s still considerably above the book’s normal range. Given the lacklustre performance of the other Spider-Man books, it’ll be interesting to see what happens when the tie-in ends.

Last month, no variant cover. This month, variant cover. With a 1-in-100 ratio. So don’t get too excited about the sales jump.Contrary to my initial comments, there’s been a variant cover on every issue of this series so far. This month, there was a 1-in-100 ratio cover, which is likely to account for some of this sales jump. The issue was also solicited as featuring the first appearance of Wolverine’s son (which it does) and the death of a beloved Marvel character (which it doesn’t appear to, apparently due to a last-minute reprieve for the character in question). Both of those could plausibly be contributing factors as well.

Two more CIVIL WAR tie-ins, with a variant cover on issue #2. The gimmickry makes it hard to read too much into these figures. It’s holding up better than HEROES FOR HIRE, the other book to launch in the middle of CIVIL WAR, but that’s not really saying a great deal. The big test comes when the crossover ends and this book has to stand on its own feet, since there’s little doubt that the sales will drop heavily at first.

Last issue had a variant cover; this one is a CIVIL WAR tie-in. Or rather, it’s a “Casualties of War” book – a term which Marvel seem to be using to hint vaguely at some sort of CIVIL WAR tie-in without actually saying so. Generally speaking, the crossover elements are minor and remote. In fairness, MOON KNIGHT #7 is one of the more defensible crossovers, since at least it does feature characters talking about the Superhuman Registration Act for a bit. If anyone can tell me what on earth GHOST RIDER #8 had to do with CIVIL WAR, I’d love to know. Soliciting “crossover” issues quite this tenuous strikes me as a bad idea in the medium and long term, but sales are up this month, and that’s probably good enough for Marvel.

Back where it was under the previous creative team. This book is clearly in decline, but Marvel have a big X-Men crossover lined up for later in the year which should bring some attention back to these books.

A huge jump for the relaunched THUNDERBOLTS, although a variant cover will be playing some part. In fact, it’s only slightly ahead of the sales for the CIVIL WAR crossover issues six months ago, but this relaunch is likely to deliver a more sustained increase in sales. Whatever you think of the new direction, it’s turned THUNDERBOLTS into a much more high profile book.

Continuing to gain sales as the CIVIL WAR crossover issues continue. After this, the book is tying directly to FANTASTIC FOUR for a while, so it won’t have to rely on its core audience for a while yet. This seems like a major change of direction for an idiosyncratic title that used to be notable for its total disregard for wider continuity, but it’s certainly delivering the numbers.

There’s a variant cover, but even so, it’s very unusual to see a sales increase for the second issue of a miniseries. SPIDER-MAN: REIGN has been widely mocked in the blogosphere, but it’s actually performing very well in the charts.

Another book which is visibly losing readers, despite the unmasking stunt. The Spider-Man books are floundering – compare the sales for January 2006, when the title was in the middle of the “Other” crossover. And look how far it’s fallen, despite what ought to be one of the biggest Spider-Man storylines ever.

Another series with a variant on its second issue, and a small climb as a result. Marvel tried this idea back in the nineties (“the 2 for 2 program”), but it usually just slowed the second-issue drop dramatically. Second issue climbs were unusual, so this seems to be a promising sign.Contrary to my initial comments, the figure for issue #2 doesn’t include the variant cover (which didn’t ship until February). That makes this an extremely rare example of a book legitimately gaining sales for its second issue – something that can only be viewed as a very good sign.

37. SILENT WAR
01/07 #1 (of 6) – 44,079

A sequel to SON OF M, or at least a series that picks up on the stray plot threads from that book. Considering that it’s basically an Inhumans miniseries, this is a strong start.

Another “Casualties of War” book. This time, the justification is that it’s a tie-in to a WOLVERINE storyline which was itself a tie-in to CIVIL WAR. Apparently a second-order crossover is still sufficient to double the sales on this book, but whether it’ll persuade anyone to stick around is another matter.

As expected, last month’s issue #89 picks up a ton of re-orders as the shipping problems are sorted out. Oddly, it sells an extra 16,153 copies, meaning that it ends up as an unusually popular issue. Issue #90, the first issue by Chris Claremont, returns to the book’s usual range.

Issue #2 picks up another 3,922 in re-orders. ANITA BLAKE continues to sell remarkably well, especially for a DBPro book.

63. GHOST RIDER FINALE
01/07 Finale – 29,841

This is the notorious lost issue of the 1990s GHOST RIDER series, which was cancelled due to Marvel’s bankruptcy. It’s a surprisingly good number, considering that not many people were reading the book at the time.

67. IRON MAN: HYPERVELOCITY
01/07 #1 of 6 – 28,630

A modest debut for Adam Warren’s Iron Man miniseries. This may not be the ideal time to launch a basically straight take on the character.

A very curious product, which is pretty much indistinguishable from a normal issue of MS MARVEL. And that begs the question – why not just run it as an issue of MS MARVEL, which sells around 7,000 copies more? It’s hard to see what Marvel thought they were achieving with this format decision.

Not great numbers, but when you consider that it’s a historical series about the Silver Age, and that the similar FANTASTIC FOUR: FIRST FAMILY debuted at 26K before sinking to 16K, it’s actually selling respectably.

Bizarrely, issue #12 of the 2006 series picks up 3,357 re-orders. It seems people really like the letter Z. 2007 sees a mixture of quarterly update issues and themed books, and for the moment we’re back in the normal range.

What can you say about these, really, other than “ouch”? Sales on WONDER MAN and WISDOM are particularly disappointing, since one is by Peter David and the other is an X-book. But the support doesn’t seem to be there.

The first of the all ages books. As usual, the direct market sales are pretty much meaningless because they’re doing most of their business elsewhere. (Exactly where is a bit of a mystery, because the digests don’t register significant sales in the Bookscan charts that track the major US bookstores. But they’ve got to be selling somewhere.)

Assorted DBPro and all ages books. PTOLUS #3 picks up 2,610 in re-orders, which is curious considering that it's a huge proportion of the total direct market sales.

276. DARK TOWER: THE GUNSLINGER BORN
01/07 #1 of 7 - 3,067

Erm... huh.

This seems to be a chart glitch, since DARK TOWER #1 didn't reach the stores until February. These are copies ordered for the midnight launch, but that was on Tuesday 6th. However, they did appear on the shipping list for the preceding week, presumably because that was the last regular shipment. And that was Wednesday 31st January. So those issues have somehow ended up on the January chart, even though they didn't actually reach the stores until the next month.

This can't possibly be the total order for the midnight launch, because there were 150 participating stores, and there's no way they ordered an average of 20 copies each. And no way are ICV2 (and CBGXtra) getting their estimates that far off. It seems more likely that Diamond have just screwed up and allowed some of the midnight sales to leak onto the January chart, when they shouldn't really be there.

Late. Issue #1 picks up re-orders of 9,120 - although strangely, Marvel aren't making any more copies of issue #2 available, so some 16,000 readers will miss the second part of the story. No doubt this makes perfect sense to someone.

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Comments

“The first of the all ages books. As usual, the direct market sales are pretty much meaningless because they’re doing most of their business elsewhere. (Exactly where is a bit of a mystery, because the digests don’t register significant sales in the Bookscan charts that track the major US bookstores. But they’ve got to be selling somewhere.)”

Libraries? That’s where I picked up and read the first two digest-format Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane books (which, of all the attempts, is the best American shojo title to date). Our local library has (in addition to many manga titles) the digest versions of SMLMJ and Runaways on the shelves.

Because Marvel reprints the mini-series books so quickly these days, there is no incentive for people to continue to purchase the mini-series. They can look at the first issue in the store, then decide if they want to buy the trade.

There used to be a phrase bandied around—a self-fulfilling prophecy; Marvel seems to be creating a self-defeating policy.

“Marvel’s high sales are mainly due to Speculators and the 7 gimicks.”

Speculators AND Completists who have to have every thing that has a Civil War stamp on it. Some of those civil war tie ins are insane, there like double what the book had before. I think there killing their other titles like Ant Man.

“Because Marvel reprints the mini-series books so quickly these days, there is no incentive for people to continue to purchase the mini-series. They can look at the first issue in the store, then decide if they want to buy the trade.”

I don’t pick up individual issues even if the trade won’t come out for years. I’ve just lost interest in having hard-to-shelve, incomplete stories full of ads.

It would be interesting to see some market research on how much effect the “lag time” between individual issues and collections has on other buyers, though. I have no idea if I’m typical.

“The first of the all ages books. As usual, the direct market sales are pretty much meaningless because they’re doing most of their business elsewhere. (Exactly where is a bit of a mystery, because the digests don’t register significant sales in the Bookscan charts that track the major US bookstores. But they’ve got to be selling somewhere.)”

You’re absolutely right, it did. I also should have mentioned that they solicited this issue as featuring the first appearance of Wolverine’s son, and the death of a beloved character, which might also account for some of the boost.

On the subject of blatantly wrong comments about variant covers, while NEWUNIVERSAL #2 did have a variant, it didn’t ship until February. That would eliminate the artificial boost as an explanation for the sales rise on this chart.

I’ll get the main text changed to reflect both these points (since these are genuinely important errors). My mistake.

“It stars an X-Character, but being that it is MAX, I think those are respectable numbers for a mini.”

Well, if you’re judging it by Max standards the obvious comparators would be HELLSTORM and ZOMBIE. WISDOM #1-2 did roughly 20K and 15K in the direct market. HELLSTORM was 27K and 17K, and ZOMBIE was 27K and 20K. So WISDOM tails behind the other Max books too.

I’m not sure basing the bookstore sales of the all-ages Marvel comics on the bookstore sales of the all-ages Marvel digests is going to work out well. Granted, I work at a bookstore and I almost never see anyone buying either the comics or the digests, but I’m not sure it would stand to reason that sales on the digests directly correlate, as parents are very cheap and don’t like repurchasing items, and kids are very fickle and want something new.

But yeah, anecdotal evidence only, I don’t know where these non-direct market sales for comics are coming from, because the only comics-related (non-manga) periodical that ever sells at our store is Wizard.

> Marvel tried this idea back in the nineties (”the 2 for 2 program”), but it usually just slowed the second-issue drop dramatically.

Wasn’t that in the early 00s? I certainly remember Exiles being one of the titles involved, so if it was the 90s, it was the very, very end.

> 63. GHOST RIDER FINALE
> 01/07 Finale – 29,841
> This is the notorious lost issue of the 1990s GHOST RIDER series, which was cancelled due to Marvel’s bankruptcy. It’s a surprisingly good number, considering that not many people were reading the book at the time.

> (Exactly where is a bit of a mystery, because the digests don’t register significant sales in the Bookscan charts that track the major US bookstores. But they’ve got to be selling somewhere.

Not so sure about the digests, school book clubs might be a good bet, but i remember Queseda anouncing in one of the Fridays that the book with the highest amounts of subscriptions that they published was marvel age: spider-man. I vaguely remember that he was saying that the number of its subs were more than double of new avengers or asthonishing. He said all ages were selling heaps and loads through subs and i guess it’s same with spider-girl..